Calgary Plan

KEY IDEAS

Building around transit

The Calgary Plan promotes more activity around existing and future stations in the Primary Transit Network (permanent network of high frequency transit), unlocking the potential for growth.

Growing around transit stations enables convenient transit use for more people and makes efficient use of existing LRT and BRT systems. Transit-oriented growth also:

  • Keeps Calgarians moving while reducing emissions
  • Improves physical health by creating more walkable neighbourhoods and enabling active travel options
  • Gives residents, especially young people and seniors, greater freedom of movement in the city
  • Provides Calgarians with more choice in how they get to work, school, and other destinations
  • Provides a more affordable mobility option
  • Unlocks opportunities for businesses around transit stations, increasing activity and making station areas safer
  • Calgarians express a strong desire for increased connectivity through expanded travel options
  • Participants observed that certain neighborhoods lack sufficient transit options
  • Citizens should have access to more affordable housing as well as a variety of mobility choices

Connecting Mobility Networks

The Calgary Plan supports safe, accessible, and convenient travel options for all Calgarians.

Our mobility networks should be integrated with each other so that Calgarians have access to a variety of travel options that are safe, reliable, and easy to use. A well-connected system supports day-to-day travel throughout all seasons and enables more people to participate in daily life, regardless of ability, age, background or income. Integrated networks reduce people’s dependency on a particular option, increasing their ability to stay connected as their plans or situations change. When these networks are linked together and brought to a high standard, they also:

  • Increase safety, particularly for the most vulnerable
  • Increase mobility choice
  • Make travel options intuitive, direct, and universally accessible
  • Enable people to blend travel options and choose sustainable travel options more often
  • Make efficient use of public funding today and minimize long-term costs into the future
  • Promote walkable and bikeable communities
  • Enhance access to safe and well-maintained pathways
  • Ensure walking and wheeling are prioritized for short and local trips
  • Increase and improve travel options
  • Reduce reliance on motor vehicles

CITY STRUCTURE MAP

Identifies our primary citywide networks for all travel options, including transit, streets, and pathways. The map shows:

  • Primary Transit Network (permanent network of high frequency transit)
  • Major roadways
  • Regional pathway connections

Knowing how we prefer to get around these areas affects what we build. When different travel options are prioritized, this will result in the following experiences and characteristics:

  • Walking: safe, direct, convenient and short pedestrian routes (wide sidewalks, pedestrian crossings and priorities at intersections, street furniture, landscaping)
  • Wheeling/cycling: safe, direct, convenient and comfortable routes for people cycling and using scooters (protected bicycle lanes, lower volume/speed streets, multi-use pathways, bicycle parking)
  • Transit: fast, frequent, direct and convenient service (bus shelters / furnished weighting areas, easy connections, bus priority in busy streets and intersections)
  • Driving: direct routes and sufficient motor vehicle parking
  • Trucks and commercial vehicles: direct, wider routes and intersections for larger vehicles with access to loading/unloading


City Structure Map

Check out the Survey tab above to share your thoughts!

Zoning Bylaw | Parking

PARKING REGULATIONS

What are parking regulations?

The current Land Use Bylaw requires different amounts of motor vehicle parking for residential developments depending on the building’s size and scale. It also regulates:

  • Bicycle Parking Class 1 (secure and covered or indoor) and Class 2 (bike racks)
  • Loading
  • Visitor parking
  • Barrier-free parking
  • Other forms of mobility storage

In 2019, The City of Calgary removed the requirement for businesses to provide a minimum amount of motor vehicle parking. This change lets businesses decide the amount of parking needed for their customers instead of requiring them to build a certain amount of parking, whether it’s needed or not.

What parking options are being explored?

The draft Zoning Bylaw is considering how best to regulate how much motor vehicle parking residential developments must provide. Parking is an important amenity for Calgarians and when not enough is provided it can make it difficult to find places to park.

However, when The City requires too much motor vehicle parking it increases the cost to build new housing, makes some types of housing harder to build and reduces the amount of land available for new housing. These impacts are passed on to home buyers and renters through higher housing costs and reduced housing options and supply.

Reducing the amount of parking that must be provided in new developments can improve affordability, increase housing choices, encourage the use of transit and help build more walkable communities.

Check out the Survey tab above to share your thoughts!

Survey

Check out The Essentials: Streets on the Phase 2 main page for more mobility questions on the Street Manual.